Walking the Talk

"Appreciating What's Already Present"
Daniel Pryfogle

Toward the end of a recent Walking the Talk engagement with about 30 leaders of Evangelical Children's Home in St. Louis, we looked at the walls covered in paper and took in the wealth of insights the group had generated through reflection upon its own experience. "It came from us," concluded one leader.

His observation was a fitting summary of the day's work, a kick-off for "Creating An Appreciative Culture," a yearlong initiative that will engage the organization in shaping an environment where employees feel valued, respected and empowered to lead. And his statement underscored what Walking the Talk is all about: making use of the good that's already present to be even better.

One year after the formal launch of this CHHSM venture, a growing number of members are saying yes to Walking the Talk. Significant projects are underway at Emmaus Homes in St. Charles, Mo., and Pilgrim Manor in Grand Rapids, Mich. Engagements continue at UCAN in Chicago, Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, Miss., and Pilgrim Place in Claremont, Calif.

Members are discovering in Walking the Talk an approach to organizational development that is practical - it makes sense to lead from what's working well. But they are also finding that it takes great effort, both individually and corporately, to shift the focus from what's broken to what's working. The fact that this shift is challenging for many underscores our fundamental task: to develop leaders.

A capacity to both identify and leverage existing resources is the mark of entrepreneurial leadership. French economist Jean Baptiste Say offered the classic definition of entrepreneurship around 1800: "The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity." In other words, the entrepreneur sees something that others ignore, sees value where others see only costs, sees possibility where others see only problems - and the entrepreneur acts on this vision.

Because it requires a different way of seeing, entrepreneurial leadership is rare. In CHHSM, entrepreneurial leadership shows up primarily in how organizations treat their customers or clients. For example, several CHHSM members have clinical philosophies grounded in asset-based thinking, meaning that these organizations see strengths in their clients that can be leveraged for their own health and healing. The challenge for these organizations and their leaders comes in applying this asset-based thinking to employees; the stretch is to shape cultures where people see in a new way, where they see strengths first.

Through Walking the Talk, we are introducing practices that revise vision. "Appreciative practices" is the term we often use, and these practices include Appreciative Inquiry along with other habits, activities and rituals that draw attention to what's already working. Teaching and coaching leaders in practices means that Walking the Talk is, in large measure, an educational initiative, but "education" itself is redefined in the work.

At the Evangelical Children's Home session, we emphasized that our approach to education is to treat the participants not as empty vessels or blank slates; rather, we start from an older understanding of education - from the Latin ex ducere, meaning "to draw out, to bring forth, to lead from." Such education means to appreciate what's already present.

The work ahead for Evangelical Children's Home is not to acquire a new culture but to celebrate and make use of the good that's already there. It's about culture formation, not culture change. Success for this organization, as for other CHHSM members, will come as leaders develop new habits of seeing. Success, or rather faithfulness to their missions, will come as they take hold of the power that is present - just as that leader noted: "It came from us."

Daniel Pryfogle is CHHSM's director of consulting services. To explore how Walking the Talk can benefit your organization, e-mail Daniel or call 919-460-7069.